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Sono Bello is a chain of body contouring clinics that employs over 125 board-certified surgeons. The company states that they have performed more than 150,000 cosmetic procedures at 60-plus locations across the United States.
These procedures are targeted towards men and women who want a quick treatment that will give them a slimmer figure. The company promises to provide each customer with an advanced micro-laser liposuction procedure for quicker results and less recovery time.
In this review, we’ll help you gain a better understanding of how Sono Bello works and the results you can expect, so you can determine if it’s right for you.
Available Procedures
Liposuction is considered an effective surgical procedure for slimming, reshaping, and removing excess fat deposits in the body.
Most procedures are performed with general anesthesia or minimal oral sedation. The surgery requires doctors to create small incisions in body tissues and use microcannulas (thin needles) to extract fat cells from the body.
It’s important to note that liposuction treatments aren’t meant to be a solution for obesity or as a shortcut for weight loss. Rather, Sono Bello states that the procedure should be considered a way to get rid of stubborn fat deposits that are difficult to remove from diet or exercise alone.
Unlike dieting—which they state merely reduces the size of fat cells—liposuction removes the fat cells entirely.
Most Sono Bello centers offer three procedures that it considers less invasive than traditional liposuction:
- TriSculpt™ Laser Liposuction
- Venus Freeze™
- TriSculpt E/X™
These procedures are used to treat a wide variety of areas, including chest, chin, waist, abs, arms, back, and legs.
TriSculpt™ Laser Liposuction
As Sono Bello’s most popular procedure, this three-step fat removal procedure relies on “stay-awake localized anesthesia, power-assisted liposuction, and micro-laser assisted liposuction.”
Sono Bello reports that laser liposuction helps to restore the natural contours of your body and is ideal for removing fat pockets from your stomach, waist, arms, and legs.
You’ll stay awake through the procedure and get local anesthesia in the treatment areas. During treatment, a physician uses microcannulas to suck out unwanted fat from large pockets and a separate microcannula with a low-power laser to break down fat in smaller sections like your upper arms and under your chin.
Venus Freeze™
This non-surgical procedure is designed to reduce the appearance of cellulite by using a combination of radiofrequency and magnetic pulses.
The Venus Freeze should be painless and will cause only a gentle massage feeling on your skin. Sono Bello states that you will experience a trimmer, smoother figure in as few as five sessions.
The treatment begins with a Sono Bello treatment provider applying a soft gel to the target area and gliding a Venus applicator over the gel in smooth motions to tighten the skin and reduce cellulite.
The treatment purportedly causes new collagen and elastin fibers to form to bring you more supple skin over time.
TriSculpt E/X™
This procedure is designed to remove excess skin, especially around the lower abdomen. It’s advertised as the ideal solution for toning up your appearance, especially when paired with liposuction to remove excess fat first.
Pricing
Sono Bello states that TriSculpt and TriSculpt E/X prices start at $1,349 per area, with a minimum requirement of three areas treated ($4,047 total minimum).
The starting price for Venus Freeze is $2,995.
However, the precise cost for your procedure will vary based on the clinic’s location, the area and amount of your body you want them to treat, whether you opt for financing or single payment, and what your starting BMI is.
Note that the company is vague about what constitutes an ‘area.’ I reached out to customer service for further details and was told this was a question that could only be discussed between my consultant and me during my ‘free, in-person consultation.’
Hitting a dead end with customer service, we looked at customer reviews of Sono Bello from around the web to learn what people were paying.
Some reported paying the following:
- Outer thigh procedure: $3,000
- Two rounds of back and belly fat removal: $12,000
- Full body liposuction treatment: $13,500
- Skin removal on their stomach: $4,000
- Back and midsection liposuction: $6,000
As this variance in prices shows, it’s difficult to predict what your treatment costs will be from looking at past procedures because they vary based on each person’s unique situation. The best way to get a price estimate is to contact your preferred treatment location for a phone estimate or to schedule a free consultation.
Financing Options
Sono Bello offers numerous financing options, including options where you won’t owe any interest if you pay off the full amount of your treatment in six or 12 months. They also claim to offer financing through Care Credit, a medical credit card that offers various financing options depending on the cost of the procedure and the time for repayment.
As with any medical procedure, you’ll want to be sure that you have a complete understanding of the costs associated with your treatment before you commit. Read the fine print and ask plenty of questions during your consultation so you know what you are signing up for.
How Does Sono Bello Pricing Compare to Other Cosmetic Procedures
The 2017 statistics from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons lists the average cost of liposuction as $3,374, though the price of the procedure varies based on location and surgeon. That’s likely lower on average than what you’ll pay at Sono Bello.
However, this pricing can be deceiving. In the words of plastic surgeon Dr. Samuel Lin, “the average fee referenced is only a portion of the cost. It does not include anesthesia, operating room facilities, or other related expenses.”
For this reason, you need to make sure you know precisely what is being treated, and what the expected results should be, before committing to a procedure
Are Liposuction Procedures a Permanent Solution?
According to New York-based plastic surgeon Dr. Charlie Chen, “the results [of liposuction] can be permanent. However, it is impossible to take out every single fat cell in the area. Therefore, if the person gains weight, the liposuctioned area may also increase in size.”
Specialist surgeon Dr. Bernard Beldholm clarifies that any fat you regain after liposuction will look a little different than before the procedure.
“If the person gains weight the remaining fat cells will grow but the patient will remain in proportion,” he told us. “For example, if liposuction has been done on the saddlebags ‘hip area’ and the person gains weight, then the legs and body will get bigger but the saddlebags will not return.”
Ideal Candidates
Liposuction is meant to remove unwanted pockets of fat that tend to accumulate in areas that are resistant to dietary changes or exercise, said Dr. Sachin M. Shridharani, a Manhattan-based plastic surgeon, noting that these pockets are common on the lower abdomen, the upper thighs, the jowls, and other areas on the body.
“Liposuction removes these pockets of fat, slimming the contour – this is a body-contouring procedure,” Dr. Shridharani said. “Excellent candidates are those that still have good elasticity in their skin so that the skin can tighten down to the slimmer contour once the underlying fat is removed.”
Not everyone is a candidate for liposuction. According to Dr. Shridharani, people who have sagging, stretched, loose skin should avoid this procedure.
“Liposuction alone is not the best procedure, as it will leave an area of loose sagging skin, albeit without fat underneath,” Dr. Shridharani said. “In these cases, procedures that remove excess skin, such as a tummy tuck, are better options.”
Dr. Chen also told us that prospective patients should be in good health, have a medical history free of significant problems, and be within 30 pounds of their ideal body weight.
It’s also best to be a nonsmoker.
Recovery Times
The company states that most Sono Bello patients return to work within a week of treatment, and they are approved for vigorous exercise within four to six weeks.
“Most patients can return to work in just two or three days unless they have had multiple areas treated – those patients may need a week off from work,” said Dr. Shridharani, adding that scarring “will be virtually invisible.”
Light physical activity may be resumed after two weeks, Dr. Shridharani recommended; intense cardio may be resumed by 3 to 4 weeks, and strength training is typically permitted at 5 to 6 weeks post-surgery.
Safety and Side Effects
As with all surgical procedures, there are some inherent risks from Sono Bello. The Mayo Clinic states that you might experience mild bleeding immediately after or develop infections at the site of the incision.
Noticeable scarring due to the treated skin pulling away from healthy skin is also possible with procedures that don’t heal correctly, and some people experience permanent or temporary numbness and tingling from nerve damage.
Past customer reviews show that some people experienced pain during the procedure because they weren’t given general anesthesia. Others reported painful, slow-healing infections because of incisions that went too deep.
One of the most common side effects is to end up with physical irregularities, such as bumpy, weathered skin, or fat bulges due to uneven fat removal or poor healing.
Your risk of complications like this increases if your surgeon is working on a large area and if you don’t take the recommended precautions during the healing phases.
However, these negative experiences look to be the exception, not the norm. Most people who undergo Sono Bello procedures don’t suffer from unexpected side effects.
Analysis of Customer Reviews
More than 200 customers have left reviews for Sono Bello on our website, and overall the service averages 3.4-stars. Here’s a summary of key insights:
Shady Sales Tactics
A significant number of Sono Bello customers weren’t happy with the sales tactics used to convince them to sign up for the service. Many people reported that they felt like they were part of a “bait and switch” where they were quoted one price during their initial consultation and then were charged more at the time of the procedure.
Positive Improvements
Many Sono Bello patients were thrilled with the results from their procedure. They noted that they dealt with short, painless recovery times and saw real progress right away.
Many wrote that friends and family noticed the change immediately and that the procedure improved places that they weren’t able to affect with exercise.
Helpful Sales Representatives
Many customers loved working with the company’s sales agents. They reported that the customer service team took lots of time to carefully explain their treatment options and ensure that they didn’t have any questions or concerns about the procedure before officially committing.
Unsatisfactory Results
A large percentage of Sono Bello users weren’t happy with the results from their procedure. We read reviews from people who felt that their skin looked deformed after treatment and that their bodies weren’t fully healed more than six months after their procedure.
Sono Bello vs. CoolSculpting?
CoolSculpting promises to get rid of extra fat through a safe, cost-effective procedure. The process relies on cryolipolysis, which is a technology designed to freeze fat cells so that they die, and your body can eliminate them.
This leads to targeted fat loss, though the process isn’t designed to help you shed weight as dramatically as liposuction. Instead, you’re likely to experience up to 20% fat reduction in the treatment area after one session, and it may take several months for your body to expel the fat cells so you can see your results.
When you compare CoolSculpting to Sono Bello’s procedures, a few things are clear. First, CoolSculpting is considered a lower risk procedure because there’s no incision, you don’t need anesthesia, and there’s usually minimal recovery time after.
One drawback is that this often leads to subtle results. A primary CoolSculpting complaint is that it takes a long time for the procedure to work, and the results are usually subtle.
CoolSculpting tends to be cheaper than other forms of cosmetic weight loss, as you’ll likely pay closer to $1000 to $2000 for the treatment.
The Bottom Line
If you’re considering a procedure from Sono Bello, you need to be realistic about what your experience might be. Keep in mind that there are risks involved and that results can vary between patients.
Sono Bello’s lack of transparency about pricing is concerning. You will likely only be able to get an accurate price estimate by attending an in-person consultation.
All Sono Bello deposit money is non-refundable, so consider your options carefully before putting down money. We suggest that you leave the office and think about your options for 24 hours before proceeding.
Cosmetic surgery, even relatively non-invasive treatments like what Sono Bello offers, isn’t for everyone. You are most likely to benefit if the following describes you:
You understand that liposuction from Sono Bello isn’t designed for extreme weight loss, but rather to reduce the appearance of fat in hard-to-tone areas.
You are within 30 pounds of your goal weight and struggle to get the results you want from diet and exercise alone.
You are willing to commit to a healthy diet and exercise routine to maintain your results.
You understand that your treatment will likely cost $4,000 or more and that you will need to put down a non-refundable deposit.
You understand that any cosmetic procedure runs the risk of potentially permanent complications.
